All of Europe is turning into Nazi Germany, where the Minister of Truth censored all speech against the Nazi regime and spread hateful propaganda against the Jews. Now, French President Emmanuel Macron has come up with an idea for a censorship law - halting the publication of information his Government deems to be false ahead of elections. President Emmanuel Macron was himself targeted during his 2017 campaign by online rumors that he was gay and had a secret bank account in the Bahamas.
The law would allow social networks to introduce measures allowing users to flag up false reports, pass their data on such articles to authorities. Judges will have just 48 hours to rule on an urgent request to take down a post deemed "fake." And the law would authorize the state to take foreign broadcasters off the air altogether if they were attempting to attack France.
The British government has set up a censorship unit, while Italy has an online service to report false articles and the European Union is working on a "code of practice" that would provide guidelines for social media companies.
France wants to go further -- though not as far as neighbouring Germany, where social networks face fines of up to 50 million euros ($58 million) under a controversial law which critics say is overly draconian.
Some opponents fear French authorities could use powers in the new law to block embarrassing or compromising reports. Others worry the law could backfire by giving extra credibility to reports labelled "fake" by the Government amongst those convinced the government is out to hide the truth.
The government insists measures will be built into the law to protect freedom of speech, with only reports that are "manifestly false" and that have gone viral.
"It's a step towards censorship. It's potentially dangerous. It will only reinforce a sense of defiance towards the press and politicians who are already very discredited. Is France still a democracy if it muzzles its citizens? The law is not only imperfect and unnecessary, but also dangerous for the peace and diversity of public debate. It will turn judges into arbiters of true and false. I cannot defend measures under which it's considered normal to block all kinds of information because it's considered close to a foreign government."
https://www.yahoo.com/news/frances-fake-news-law-leaves-media-experts-uneasy-145712000.html
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